Here’s another banana bread I made, with chocolate chips added into the mixture.

In my opinion, banana bread is one of the best cakes for students and frankly became a bit of a staple in my kitchen last year. It’s rich in potassium and so good for brain functions (how many of us were told to eat bananas during exam season?), and it’s not so sugary that you get a sugar high and then crash shortly after eating it. It makes for a great energising snack and goes very well with a cup of Darjeeling.

The process of making them is rather ideal for students too. I would usually buy a big bunch of bananas at the market as part of my weekly shop, and inevitably I wouldn’t get through all of them before they became overripe, so mashing them and baking with them is a good way of making sure they don’t go to waste. It’s also a fairly quick and simple recipe; it usually takes me about 15 minutes to make up the mixture and get it ready for the oven, and then you can go off and do other things while you wait for it to cook. Granted, the first time I took my books into the kitchen so that I could keep an eye on it, but it happily sits in the oven and slowly cooks, so I usually just went back to my room or the library.

Another feature of the banana bread is that it’s very easy to share, whether you’ve made it as a loaf or a round cake, because you can just cut a slice whenever you need it. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I’ll leave up to you to decide.